It's good that this is not a Dream Team - Indy Star

[CeltsSteve@xxxxxxx]

It's good that this is not a Dream Team 

August 29, 2002

This U.S. men's basketball team ain't exactly Dream Team XXII, or whatever 
Roman numeral we'd now be on had we brought the very best NBA players America 
had to offer to the World Basketball Championship.But in many ways, this team 
is better.  
    
Yep, the same team that has Antonio Davis instead of Shaquille O'Neal, Raef 
LaFrentz instead of Kevin Garnett, Shawn Marion instead of Michael Jordan. 
Better.For this tournament.This group of really-good-but-not-great players is 
a more accurate litmus test for USA basketball at the moment. It's a test 
that is necessary.God bless the mega-stars for declining to play here.

The rest of the world's best players are better than our college kids. Fine. 
Our Hall of Fame-caliber players are better than the rest of the world's 
best. Cool. But this group of NBA guys, the in-between players, offer a 
chance for intrigue.

What we have in this world championship, with the NBA's upper-middle class 
playing, is the potential for a pretty fair fight. It's a chance to not just 
see that American players jump higher and run faster, but a chance to see how 
much better the United States is when it comes down to true basketball skill 
and strategy in relatively close games with so much at risk.If the United 
States indeed is better under those circumstances.

"This definitely means something," said Davis, one of three current or former 
Pacers on the squad -- further proof that this team is made mostly of really 
good players but not franchise players."Obviously, we were chosen to play, 
while other, bigger-name players turned it down. You may not see the elite 
players here over the next week or so, but you'll see guys here who feel they 
need to win this championship in order to prove something. We've got 
everything to lose."

Let's face it: A United States team that featured the top 12 players from the 
NBA, sort of like tennis player rankings, would run through this tournament 
like O.J. in an old Hertz commercial. Regardless what anybody tries to tell 
you, it wouldn't even be close.I don't care how many members of the 
Sacramento Kings the rest of the world has. The rest of the world is not 
catching up that fast.

But this team and its happy-to-be-here players could show us some things over 
the next 11 days.The United States team would gain a lot more respect for 
winning with this team of NBA players -- or awe-struck college players -- 
than for cruising through the tournament with the league's highest-profile 
stars.Where's the satisfaction in seeing Shaq slam on the Algerian center or 
swat Lebanon's power forward in 50-point blowouts? We've already seen that 
with the alleged Dream Teams.

But watch for semi-close games in this year's WBC, possibly ending with 
another championship for the United States.Only this time, it would be an 
international crown for which the NBA guys actually had to work -- and 
American fans had to sweat.

"A lot of guys on this team are not really known," American guard Baron Davis 
said. "But these are still guys who're the top two or three players on their 
(NBA) teams. We're not chopped liver."

But they're not yet prime rib.That's a good thing, though. If they win, it 
shows America doesn't need to have its top-level players to beat everyone 
else.That's representing your country.If they lose 

. . . "Nobody wants to be the first NBA team to lose (in international 
competition)," U.S. forward Ben Wallace said. "I don't want to go back and 
look those other (NBA players) in the face after something like that."That's 
a lot of pressure for us."

It's about time.

- Jemal Horton is a sports columnist for The Indianapolis Star. Contact him 
at 1-317-444-6514 or via e-mail at <A HREF="mailto:jemal.horton@indystar.com";>jemal.horton@indystar.com</A> 

CeltsSteve